LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dear Dharma Master,

Thanks ever so much for the great kindness you show In having sent us the thirty copies of The Sixth Patriarch's Dharma Jewel Platform Sutra and Commentary (San Francisco, 1971), which just arrived. Some of them have already been distributed to the Buddhist societies and graduate students of our college who are deeply interested in this Sutra. 

Your way of meditating and cultivating the Buddhist path at Gold Mountain Monastery, with which I was deeply impressed during the winter of 1972, has, I feel, established a model for Buddhist disciples all over the world. It is both Inspiring and cheering, and strengthens our mutual conviction that the Dharma can, without a doubt, be spread courageously and fearlessly. Thus, I feel that it is the right time for me to let you know that your masterpiece of translation and commentary Is benefiting our students and scholars a great deal, both in its fidelity to the text and stylistic felicity in English. It has in this sense bridged the heretofore ever-present gap between the Oriental and Western approaches to Buddhism and thereby furthered our goal in propagating the Dharma. For example, two college professors from the local Tamkang College of Arts and Sciences and a Catholic Tien Educational Center, though already in their final step of completing an annotated English bibliography for the study of literature in Taiwan, have decided to include your title as another item which can provide background knowledge for understanding Chinese literature and/or the Zen element in English literature. I do think that as some say, not very long from now the Buddhist college and graduate students of this island can share in your task of translating Buddhist texts into the languages of the West, while looking forward to the day when Buddhism will be the very religion to rescue mankind from pains and penances.

Sincerely yours in the Dharma,

Chow Hsuen-the, Editor
Torch of Wisdom

6, Lane 168 Chien Kuo South Road
Taipei (106), Taiwan
Republic of China